Sugar Ray Thomas
Four men, who have been in custody since their arrest in July 2012, were again remanded into custody when they appeared before Justice Carol Lawrence-Beswick in the St. Ann Circuit Court on Thursday, June 11.
They are Mark Brown, Eric Ramjeet, Lorenzo McDonald and Kevin Bailey, all of Hampstead in Runaway, St. Ann. They are all charged for the murder of a Jamaican, 35 year-old Gavin Campbell, who lived in Orlando in Florida, but was visiting the island when he was killed. Campbell was killed July 5, 2012 after the accused men reportedly invaded the villa where he and several of his overseas relatives were staying. The group was on the island for a family reunion.
When the men appeared in court last week, Prosecutor Jeremy Taylor made disclosures to the lawyers in the matter who were Linton Gordon (absent from court), Robert Brown and Christopher Nathan. The defence led by Robert Brown, who was holding for Mr Gordon, explained to the judge that the defence was experiencing difficulties in interviewing their clients as he explained that the men were being held in Kingston and neither he nor Mr. Nathan had access to them. Prosecutor Jeremy Taylor informed the high court judge that the accused men, especially Mark Brown were a risk to society and they had to be confined to Kingston.
In the incident, Brown had lost a finger which was bitten off. He later turned up at the St. Ann’s Bay Hospital for treatment where he was arrested. He was directed to show his hand to the court, which proved that his finger was indeed gone.
Defence attorney, Mr. Brown rebutted that Mr Gordon had gone to seek an interview with his client at the facility where the men were being held and that area was not conducive or welcoming. In addition, he explained that he was assigned to Kevin Bailey, while Mr Nathan was assigned to Eric Ramjeet through a need for legal representation and they had taken the assignments. Mr Brown also reemphasized to the judge the distance to be travelled to interview the men.
“An easy solution to that matter, Mr Brown, is to have a younger lawyer assigned to do the interviews for you, if travelling is a difficulty,” explained the judge.
Mr Taylor agreed with the suggestion proposed by the judge. Justice Lawrence-Beswick then moved to traverse the matter in order to allow time for the interviews to be done by the lawyers. However, she was interrupted by the raising of the hand of one of the accused men, Kevin Bailey.
The Accused man’s plea
The accused man, Bailey informed the judge that he needed to address her.
“Are you sure you don’t want to talk to your lawyer about that,” the judge asked him.
“Your Honour, I was dragged out of di Runaway Bay Police Station where dem did a keep me and taken into bushes and beaten by di policeman and dat statement on di file is beat him beat me and force me to give di statement,” Bailey told the judge. The judge did not hear the allegations and the prosecutor repeated the allegations to her.
“Your Honour, a four year now me in lock up and me just frustrated. Me tiad a di police who nuh stop badda me and me feel like me ago lose it. See him there, Your Honour holding down him head,” Bailey said, pointing to the officer who was on his phone and did not look at the accused man.
“Well sir, we have heard your plight and that is why we are going to set an early trial date in the next sitting of Circuit to deal with your matter,” explained the judge to the man. The matter was traversed to the next sitting of the Circuit court on Monday, October 12 for trial. The four accused men were remanded into custody.
Police reports had indicated that at about 10:30 p.m. on July 5, 2012, the group of relatives was at the villa when men armed with guns and other deadly weapons entered. The men proceeded to rob the group of valuables including money and cellular phones. A tussle reportedly developed between the robbers and the occupants when the men opened fire hitting Gavin Campbell. He was taken to the hospital where he was pronounced dead.
The men escaped in bushes in the area. One of the robbers, who was reportedly injured during the attack, later turned up at the St. Ann’s Bay Hospital for treatment where he was arrested. The others were arrested at different times following investigations by the police.
